The Morris Brothers version of the lyrics of the chorus of the song go: Let me be your Salty Dog / Or I won't be your man at all / Honey let me be your salty dog.[4] According to Richard Matteson:

The Morris chord progression for Salty Dog was also used by other performers, leaving the Morris version as an arrangement at best. During the 1920s and 30s many country performers claimed they wrote any song that they copyrighted. This was a customary practice because the royalties meant big money in some cases.[4]

As with many folk songs, the lyrics can vary massively. Some of the lyrics were published as early as 1911 by Howard Odum[4] in his article "Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negroes" in The Journal of American Folklore.[9]